Although researchers agree that Alternative Education (AE) within the United States is an essential set of schools and programs that do things beyond traditional education, they do not agree on the purpose for these efforts. To understand how researchers can connect between existing perspectives and consider new ways that they can discuss success in the future, I interviewed 16 students and 15 staff from three different AE schools within the same state. Through thematic analysis, I found students and staff to describe success as an amalgamation of individual and common conceptions, requiring individual effort and support, a commitment to daily action as well as a wider, longer-term vision. AE students and staff also shared extensively about the role constructive relationships played in their pursuit of success. AE students and staff help broaden the ways researchers and policy makers can look at success in the future. They also provide glimmerings of what relationships based on wider conceptions of power can look like, something with increasingly wide implications when we broaden our considerations to relationships between not just students and staff, but also parents, the district, the local community, and society at large. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]